Sony SVR-2000 ... can I update this to newest Tivo software or am I stuck at 3.0?

No, the Series 1 software was sunset years ago. The S1 can record analog only and does not support the features introduced in the Series 2, Series 3 or Series 4 boxes (e.g. the Premiere). The current level of software is 14.8 and requires related hardware.

series 1 boxes are mostly used today as recorders for home security cameras or to record SD versions of satellite set top box output.

If you are looking to use a TiVo with a newer, digital TV, you are far better off with a Series 3, THD, or Premiere, though I would go with a Premiere, as some newer function isn't supported on the older boxes.

 

It's a Series 1, and has the limitations that come with being a Series 1 unit http://www.tivopedia.com/model-sony-svr2000.php
or what jfh3 said as I was typing and getting the link right.

 

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All Tivo models except the upcoming TiVo Premiere Elite support analog. (not considering any of the DirecTV TiVo hybrids)

 

3.0 is the most recent version for Series 1 non-DirecTV TiVos.

It'll probably remain the most recent version for at least the rest of this century.

You can use a utility called "copykern" to enable it to use drives larger than 137GB (i.e., make the kernel LBA48 aware), and, with the proper adapter, use drives as large as 1TB. And you can use 2 of them.

The adapter thread is here

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=416883

Short version, you need a Marvell chipset based adapter for a Series 1, you can't use Western Digital Caviar Blues, IDE or SATA, for some reason, and some combinations of identical Seagate drives won't work either, although one of them by itself will.

If you want to mess around with "hacking" a Series 1, go here

http://tivo.stevejenkins.com/

and start reading to get some ideas.

 

All Tivos can record from analog but only Series 3/HD and Premiere can record digital. Except for Series 2 which can record from digital to analog converters, aka cable boxes and OTA DTA converters.

Why are you sticking with analog, since cable and OTA are converted to digital. Analog is old school.

 

3.0 is the latest for Series 1 units.

You miss out on

• Folders in the NPL
• Official networking, incuding MRV and TTG.
• Support for over the air digital converters.
• Guru Guides
• Ads in pause and delete.

 

GameGuru,

There is a good chance that the digital equivalents of OTA channels are also present and tunable on your "analog" cable signal, but with different channel numbers than those provided on a cableco digital box.

There is also a chance that your cable company will be phasing out the remaining analog channels and providing only digital replacements, requiring the use of a DTA (digital tuning adapter, provided by the cable company) to convert the digital channels to a single analog RF output on analog channel 3 or 4.

The bad news with the digital channels being tuned without a cable box is the unfamiliar channel numbers are not supported in the TiVo guide directly, but require the use of a cable card (from the cable company) to be added to the TiVo, which in turn requires an S3 or newer model of TiVo unit.

If you don't already have the Series 1 TiVo, you may want to get a much newer model to be ready for the upcoming elimination of the analog channels on the cable coming into your home.

If you have a TV with a digital tuner, you can connect it to your cable and scan for channels to see if there are free and clear (i.e., non-pay) digital channels there.

 

The issue is not the DTA putting things on "unfamiliar channel numbers" it puts them on the same channels as any other cable box.
A DTA on a cable network is treated the same as any other cable set top box, no more, no less. DTAs on OTA.. that's where some Tivo's can have issues.

I have no idea where in the mix for an S1 or S2 you would put a CableCARD since those are S3 and higher components, but this is a thread on a Series 1 device, not a Series 3+ that can't control a cable set top box.

 

The only channel output from our DTAs from Comcast is either analog 3 or 4. To tune in the range of cable channels, the DTA remote is used and the selected channel comes out of the DTA on channel 3 or 4, whatever was selected by the user.

 

Not all cable providers are digital only. For instance, most Time Warner affiliates chose to go with "Switched Digital Video" for many of their digital channels, in order to protect enough bandwidth to allow them to continue to offer a full set of analog channels. Here, channels 1-99 are still in analog , and will likely be analog for some time to come.

 

Time Warner may have gone to SDV to free up bandwidth for stuff they can charge extra for, but at least here it isn't so they can still offer a full set of analog channels because they've been whittling those away steadily the past couple of years.

Nobody bothers to tell TiVo though, so it still thinks I still get Oxygen, the Speed Channel, Lifetime Movie Network, C-Span 2 (we never did get C-Span 3) and 2 or 3 others I can't recall at the moment.

 

yes, EXACTLY the same as any other cable box with RF out, that's my point. A DTA is just a cheap feature stripped cable box functionally and logically it's just a cable box.

OTA DTAs are different, and that's where an older Tivo would have trouble.

 

In my case with an old Sony SVR2000 S1, the TIVO remote is used to control the Tivo which then controls the Comcast DTA with a IR blaster.

All analog has been shut down by Comcast in my market.

 

Yeah, that's the case here as well, and I'd expect most Time Warner locations nationwide. That said, you can still get virtually all the most popular cable channels in analog on Time Warner, and for most people, they won't miss channels like SPEED or Lifetime Movie or C-SPAN 2.

 

Of course as those analog channels are stripped away the price never comes down.

 

A dual tuner model S2 (649) is only dual as long as there is still analog, it can only control 1 cable box. With lifetime prices from months ago, you might be able to get 1 for $200+. If you like to future proof yourself, look for S3/HD or Premiere, these have dual digital/analog tuners.